Arkaim is the name given to a fascinating ancient archaeological site in the steppe of the Southern Urals, located in Russia just north of the border of Kazakhstan. It is attributed to the Sintashta culture, an ancient Aryan steppe culture of the Proto-Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European family. The Sintashta culture is an interesting subject to explore on its own, and I’ll be doing a post on them later. For now, just know that they’re credited with inventing the chariot and for building fortresses full of sacred geometry and celestial alignments.

The site is estimated at 4,000 years old, dating Arkaim to the same era as Troy. Like Troy, the city is structured within a series of large concentric circular walls. Within the walls stood sixty dwellings opening towards an inner circular street. The buildings were complete with hearths, cellars, wells and metallurgical furnaces, making the city both a fortress and a functional arms factory capable of producing the implements necessary to fuel a war machine. The site has a diameter of 520 feet, with walls 15 feet deep and 18 feet high, and the whole city was surrounded by a deep moat. It is estimated that the city could house between 1,500 and 2,500 people. Its easy to imagine the other steppe peoples of the time breaking against the walls of this fortress. To them, it would’ve seemed like an impenetrable mountain.

However, Arkaim is not merely an impressive example of an early Aryan fortress. In this site we see the union of transcendent spirit with immanent reality typical of the ancient primordial Tradition. Despite its obvious strategic function, the fortress city seemed to double as a temple, and the entire construction expresses sacred elements. It has been suggested that Arkaim is one of the cities mentioned in the Vedas and Avestas as cities built reproducing the model of the universe. “The structure consists of three concentric rings of walls and three radial streets, reflecting the city of King Yima described in the Rigveda. The foundation walls and the dwellings of the second ring are built according to what some researchers have described as swastika-like patterns the same symbol is found on various artifacts.” At the center of the complex was a rectangular open space, with intricate, cardinally oriented entryways. The city is reminiscent of a sacred mandala, and filled with swastikas and other solar symbols.

As I’ll continue to cover in future posts, structures built with cardinal and celestial orientations are often designated ritual spaces, a literal application of the famous Hermetic axiom “as above, so below”. By designing structures to reflect a cosmic blueprint, the material world is intentionally reshaped to be a reflection of the heavenly world, and a meeting of the planes is accomplished within the ritual structure. This central courtyard was almost certainly used to administer rites, rituals, and sacrifices, both in times of peace and war. In this Aryan fortress we see the same principles applied as in Stonehenge, the famous pyramids of Egypt, Mayan temples, and sacred sites all around the world.

Arkaim is a sacred Aryan war temple, a city that joins martial power with the transcendent.

I botched the first post by not linking the pictures. Inauspicious start!

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Bodhicitta

Nonduality is hard to grasp when you’re attached to your preconceptions

lol

An essential read for anyone who thinks Buddhism is a pacifist religion

"Obesity was particularly offensive to the Celts who issued fines for any young man who allowed himself to become fat"

Norton-Taylor, D. (1974). The Celts.

Strong desire to go wandering yogi mode